Discussion (105) ¬

“A small assortment of astonishingly loud brass instruments raced each other lustily to the respective ends of their distinct musical choices as the gates flew open to release a torrent of tawny fur comprised of angry yapping bullets that nipped at Desdemona’s ankles, causing her to reflect once again (as blood filled her sneakers and she fought her way through the panicking crowd) that the annual Running of the Pomeranians in Liechtenstein was a stupid idea.”

We have those little monsters in Michigan, too. One thing about them that most people don’t realize: they’re not just herbivores. They’ll snack on insects, baby birds and each other’s young when they can. Basically anything a rat would eat, so will a squirrel.
I can confirm that they taste like chicken, though a little on the dry side.

Ah, yes! The infamous “Tastes like chicken,” incident is my favourite two days of Catherine in the entire strip! No fuss, no muss, it had a kind of Zen balance to it – “You eat my food, you become my food.” And the squirrels SO deserved their fate! I have plotted squirrel stew on many occasions.

Fan service. Waiting for a new story arc. And yes, I AM paying to read this strip. Sent Paul $20, which from my viewpoint is two months of Netflix. From Paul’s view it could be one large pizza. Either way, fans, why not contribute?

Just going through a crappy kitchen remodel that the store keeps screwing up, only had access to 1/3 of our living space for over 2 months and our house is still turned upside down. Things could always be worse but the stress is leaving my brain not as malleable as I would like to write properly and I’d rather give you fluff in the mean time than crappy writing. Sorry for the extended intermission.

Mine aren’t framed either….yet. I got quotes on what I wanted done with my prints and original sketch, but I’m a little tight on funds right now, so can’t take action just yet. I am woefully short on figurines though. I’ve only got Tepoz…and when he got to me, his head was detached. Still need to buy superglue to make it stay on. 🙁

Oh come on people. Give me a little credit! I didn’t mean “real” real or “supernatural” real. Sheesh! But they were “real” to him, I suspect, in that he continually “heard” them – not just self talk “voices”. And they totally took control of his life.

One of the things I really like about Paul is his grasp of the human condition and the self-talk “demons” that (almost?) all of us carry inside – doubt, fear, insecurity, self-loathing, etc. The beauty of Wapsi Square is that Paul brings them out front and center so that they can be examined and seem for what they really are. Just voices – negative self talk. Something to be acknowledged and ignored.

The life lessons that Monica, Shelly and others have learned here apply to all of us. We can listen to our “demons” and let them hold us back or we can listen and say “Thank you for sharing” and choose to ignore their negativity. Face your fear and walk through it.

And as for “realness” – there have been a couple of times while mediating when what I heard and felt was so real that it jolted me out of the meditation to look around and verify that I was alone. Very different than self-talk – or self-touch – and not just because it was positive. If that degree of “realness” was anything like what Joe Holt experienced I have just an inkling of what he was going through.

This is why it’s a good idea to put such terms in quotes when not referring to the (in this case) beings. It helps to alert the reader to the fact you are using the term in a more general sense. Especially when also using words like “real” in conjunction with it.

my cousin is one of the five or so priests authorized and trained to do exorcisms. i knew he was a priest, but it wasn’t until about a year or so ago that for my dads funeral that one of my sisters kept making a joke about how he could do a “two-for-one”… do the ceremony for the funeral, and an exorcism for my oldest sister who was kinda hysterical at the time… long story short, i found out that he was featured on a i think it was the History channel or maybe the Discovery channel in a documentary about the Church’s take on demons and what they did about them… i never actually SAW it, but my sister did and hence the jokes…

I don’t mean to offend, but I didn’t even click the link. Hearing voices is a provable mental illness, which is also tragic (usually). A guy that I loved, who also loved me, went to places in his head that I couldn’t understand or cope with. Or reach. I learned later that it was because he was abused (in a variety of ways) as a child (but I still feel guilty about not understanding), but his doctors could, and did, understand. Should I ascribe the supernatural to his behaviour then? Isn’t that just belittling and insulting him, his caregivers and doctors, and (least of all, for sure) myself? As human beings, we can every man Jack amongst us rise above our origins to something better, can’t we…? We can, right…? Yes…? ‘Demons’ as you define them are just something a priest can blame for bad things happening. It takes a very, very brave person to delve into a personality and discover the root cause of its problems… only a truly callous person would shout ‘demons’.
Ugh. @SoWhyMe: Splash some cold water in my face? I got really maudlin there. Guess 48 hours is too long for me to be up (curse you, work!)

That article (from what i gather and speed reading) is about split personality.
Those demons are similar to the ones people ascribe to alcoholics when they battle with their demons.

do inner demons exist? sure – peeps battle with them on a daily basis.

do hellfire/multidimensional/outside source demons exist? guess will find out when we die 🙂

Oh and no wikipedia article on ‘inner’ demons but on demons found this

Ancient Greek δαίμων daimōn is a word for “spirit” or “divine power”, much like the Latin genius or numen. The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives the etymology of the Greek word as from the verb daiesthai “to divide, distribute.” The Greek conception of a δαίμων notably appears in the works of Plato, where it describes the divine inspiration of Socrates. To distinguish the classical Greek concept from its later Christian interpretation, it is usually anglicized as either daemon or daimon rather than demon.

The Greek term does not have any connotations of evil or malevolence. In fact, εὐδαιμονία, literally “good-spiritedness”, is a term for “happiness”. The term first acquired its now-current evil connotations in the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible, informed by the mythology of the ancient Semitic religions. This connotation was inherited by the Koine text of the New Testament. The medieval and neo-medieval conception of a “demon” in Western civilization (see the Medieval grimoire called the Ars Goetia) derives seamlessly from the ambient popular culture of Late (Roman) Antiquity. Greco-Roman concepts of daemons that passed into Christian culture are discussed in the entry daemon, though it should be duly noted that the term referred only to a spiritual force, not a malevolent supernatural being. The Hellenistic “daemon” eventually came to include many Semitic and Near Eastern gods as evaluated by Christianity.

Not quite. There were evil gods and demi-gods who had to be apeased well prior to the Bible. They could make humans do bad things. It’s the same thing, they just weren’t called “demons” at the time. It’s really a question of semantics. The Hewbrews were not the first peoples to employ the concept.

Should also add here that “Lucifer” is derived from the Latin for “Light bearer”, and referred to the planet Venus when it appears in the morning as part of its orbit, preceding (and thus “bringing about”) the rising of the sun. A lovely and somewhat poetic image, IMHO.

It was a non-canonical work (the book of Enoch, if memory serves) that stuck the name Lucifer to the devil.

Also, Jesus (and you can annoy the clueless by telling them that Jesus claimed to be the planet Venus): “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.” – Rev 22:16

For the devil, you’re looking for something more like Isaiah 14:12: “How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!”

Thank you for this link. As a daughter of a schizophrenic mother this article moved me to tears. Long before the doctors understood much of the disease, she said that the moral responsibility for ones action was there, whether you are sick or not. Good, that medical people finally listen.

In all the conversation about “daemons” and “demons,” I think it should be noted that “realness” is something that’s more fluid and fleeting than many people would like to admit. I am pretty empirical in daily life, but I’ve experienced moments when a touch, a quiet voice, a sense of completeness, all these things happened with an immediacy that was as real as anything I’ve experienced when talking with friends or family. Reality is what we allow ourselves to experience, to some extent. If you don’t have an intention to experience it, many surreal experiences will never happen to you. You can of course get too deeply involved in these sorts of things. The sense of knowing when to stop reality-diving is wisdom, and only comes with the passage of time and listening to those who have gone before you. “None is so blind as him who will not see.” We and “reality” are in a dance, changing leads and trying to move to the music as best we can. Each is incomplete without the other. A divine pairing, complete and perfect unto itself.

Oh, and Dietzel, you have our permission to attack the squirrels. Go, dog!

The second (and last) time i was in London, i was in Kensington Gardens (or was it St James Park … or Hyde Park … since they’re all basically the same big swath of green …), looking for the statue of Peter Pan.

There were typically aggressive panhandling squirrels and pigeons (though nothing to the feather rats in Trafalgar Square) all over the place – the kind that make you almost afraid that if you don’t cough up some sort of “protection” they’re gonna run up you body, get nose-to-nose and explain just why it would be a good reason to hand over the peanuts.

And then suddenly … there weren’t. Not a tree rat or pigeon to be seen.

And then i saw i was coming up on the Round Pond … and the geese had that territory staked out.

Squirrels aren’t stupid. Pigeons are, but have a healthy sense of self-preservation…

My next door neighbor when I was a kid was a squirrel charmer. He tamed a squirrel to ride on his shoulder while he was outside. He would routinely have to clean up all the black walnuts in his yard (using a frozen lemonade can attached to a stick as a kind of scooper so he didn’t have to lean over), and while he put most into a sack slung around his shoulder, he would often hand one to his buddy to nosh on.

We were a small town so we chased him out of town for witchcraft. Just kidding.

I feel sorry for Monica; having a rack almost as huge as hers, I could NEVER run that fast (being towed by my pet dog or not!) Inertia and hydrodynamics would be an anethma to me as it likely is to her. And shame on Dietzel for running away from a cute lil’ squirrel! what is he, a big chicken or sumpin’ ?

Actually, i seem to recall that the time we saw Monica on skates using Dietzel as a power source, what she said was “On your left!” – warning slower skaters (or slower people on skates) that she was overtaking them on their left side.

That is just excellent! I still think it goes a bit too far putting things in it that weren’t there from the artist, but what you’ve done just sets the scene off perfectly and adds dimensionality. Another keeper.